Vista Stinks

For those of us with a full cup of Windows Vista hate, the answer is to run to Windows 7. The release candidate (RC) is out and I too plan to overwrite Vista with this as soon as I can get my head above water. But this article from Lifehacker made me laugh this morning. What will happen when you get the Windows 7 RC and fail to upgrade to the paid version? At first (in March 2010) you’ll get a nag/pop up. I’d expect that. Then in June, you’d expect to be locked out, right. But no, even funnier. You can use it for 30 minutes. Then it auto-reboots – without warning. 🙂 Maybe it’s just me, but that’s funny and worse than a total lockout. Like what you see? Too ba(reboot).

It’s all fine. They don’t have to give you a nag-free year to begin with. If you don’t want to pay for your operating system, then get Ubuntu (or some other flavor of Linux).

Dvorak nails it on this column. But a couple points: I look forward to the day when I read an install review without any minor glitches (yes, they are far and few between – but there’s still work to be done). Secondly, when you take his advice and you hit a snag. Don’t give up.. Buzz me or ask in the Ubuntu forums. You’ll find the answer.. now back to Dvorak’s comments.

I’m tired of dealing with Windows malware, patch Tuesday, and the never-ending deterioration of the OS as it clogs up like a drain in a greasy-spoon restaurant. I can’t take it anymore.

And there’s something else that always bugs me about Windows. I have an iMac that I use at the office, and a few times every month Apple has some patch that it sends out. With few exceptions, each time a patch is installed with the Mac OS, the performance of the machine improves. With Windows, the performance always declines.

I don’t think Microsoft has ever sent out a patch that improved the performance of the machine. Ever.

I imagine when the news that Microsoft first signed Jerry Seinfeld for 10 Million dollars to push Vista, that Steve Jobs and Co. at Mac had this “oh, this can’t be good” feeling in theirlower intestinal regions. Well the ad is out.. and it is just bizarre.

Ad-man-super-genius, Roy Williams, has often said, “know what to leave out.” But in this case It’s almost like an admission that Vista does suck.

Linux reaching a record 2.8 per cent share last month [in the UK] pointed to an increasing appetite for OS alternatives, much like other research has found. Wanna read the full story?

Keep in mind this is up from .1 percent in early 2007.

The main reasons (besides Vista frustration) are Ubuntu has made it easier for people to get started in Linux and it sure helps Dell is pre-loading Ubuntu on some machines.

If you are frustrated with Vista, or just want to give this Linux thing a try, don’t be afraid. You may have to learn a couple new things (like burning an iso image to a CD) but there are some great guides online that make it easy. Heck, you can even Skype me and I’ll help you if I can. The biggest question most people have is “can i go back if I don’t like it.” Absolutely. Ubuntu (and nearly ever version of Linux) has a “Live CD” where you can put a CD in the drive, reboot and it bypasses (but doesn’t touch) your operating system with Ubuntu running completely from the disk and your memory. Keep in mind this is much slower than how it will actually run. But it is a great way to get a peak at it and see if it will work well with your hardware. When you are done, log out, remove the disk, reboot and you are back in Vista (burp – I just threw up in my mouth a little typing that).